Stake Blocked Again in Brazil After a One-Day Court Reprieve

The Ruling That Reopened Stake

On 8 October, Judge Cristiane Farias Rodrigues dos Santos of São Paulo’s 9th Federal Civil Court granted Stake a partial injunction against Provisional Measure 1.394, the decree that ended licensed betting in Brazil. The order kept Stake’s authorisation in force until 25 October and barred authorities from blocking stake.bet.br while the case was reviewed. It came with 12 conditions, including no new promotions or customer acquisition, keeping withdrawals available, holding enough funds to cover player balances and operating only through authorised domains. Stake’s request to keep its licence until 31 December 2029, its original expiry date, was not granted at that stage.

Why the Appeals Court Stepped In

The federal government, through the Attorney General’s Office (AGU), asked the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region (TRF-3) to suspend the order. It argued that the injunction favoured a single company. On 9 October the court’s president, Judge Luis Antonio Johonsom di Salvo, agreed. “In this case, I consider the evidence of serious harm to administrative public order to be sufficiently established,” he wrote. He found that exempting one operator from a sector-wide policy created a “regulatory asymmetry” and could prompt a wave of similar lawsuits while the Supreme Federal Court is still reviewing the measure.

The suspension stands until the case is finally decided or the TRF-3 presidency rules again. It does not decide whether MP 1.394 is constitutional. Since 10 October, Stake’s Brazilian website and app have been offline again, according to a notice on the site.

The Timeline So Far

The Wider Fight Over the Ban

Stake’s case is one front in a larger legal battle. Trade bodies ANJL and IBJR have asked the Supreme Federal Court to suspend MP 1.394 in full, and the association Anseja has filed its own constitutional challenge. The cases sit with Justice Luiz Fux. A preliminary ANJL survey found that more than 3,500 workers in the sector have already lost their jobs, with 4,167 more on collective leave.

Politics adds pressure. The licences end on 25 October, the same day as the presidential runoff between Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro. Lula has pledged to “put an end to the bets”; the amendment window closed on 13 October with more than 50 amendments filed, and Congress has until 23 November to vote. The review committee had not announced a timetable at the time of the latest reports. Our full explainer on MP 1.394 covers the refund rules for players.

What This Means for Players

For players in Brazil, the reversal changes nothing in practice: there is no licensed betting site to use while the ban stands. For everyone else, the episode is a useful warning. A court-granted reprieve lasted about a day (granted on 8 October, suspended on 9 October), and an operator’s availability in a market can be reversed overnight by a single appeals-court ruling. If you hold a balance with any operator whose access in your country depends on a pending court case, withdraw it rather than leaving it there, and treat any site that claims to be “approved in Brazil” as unverified until a primary source says otherwise.

FAQ

18+ only. Gambling laws differ by country and change quickly — check the rules where you live. If gambling stops being fun, BeGambleAware and GamCare offer free, confidential support.